This is an activity to help students create characters for narrative writing or creative writing. Some students struggle to develop a character for a story and therefore creative writing becomes frustrating for them. This is a great way to help students think about their character with more depth.

This is a fun rap that covers the five main elements of a story: setting, plot, characters, conflict and theme.

Madeline Noonan starts every class day with a morning meeting. Students use vocabulary to describe how they're feeling, practice speaking in front of peers, and gain trust by sharing a little about themselves. A daily "greeting" adds a bit of fun.

This is an animated short that functions as both a persuasive text warning consumers about the dangers of factory-produced food and a commercial for Chipotle Mexican Grill. In the video, our central character, a scarecrow, realizes the horrors of factory produced food products and can no longer work for the food corporation. The scarecrow decides to start a new food business afresh - producing foods made from fresh, sustainable ingredients.This wordless animation requires students to infer the author's central message and purpose, find evidence to support their ideas, and discuss the role of characterization and setting in the theme. Please note: this is a primary text resource. Guidelines for implementation in the classroom can be found in the "Guidance for Teachers in Using this Resource" section.

Seminar explores approaches to representation for very distributed cinematic storytelling. The relationship between story creation and story appreciation is analyzed. Readings are drawn from literary, cinematic criticism, as well as from artist's descriptions of interactive, distributed works. Students analyze a range of storytelling techniques, develop a previsualization, story construction, or audience participation model. Individual or group final projects.

In this blended lesson supporting literacy skills, students watch video dramatizations of Percy Julian's struggles with racism and how he refused to let it limit his possibilities in life. Students develop their literacy skills as they explore an English language arts focus on understanding character. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and interactive activities. This resource is part of the Inspiring Middle School Literacy Collection.